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A manufacturing program is much like a part in one key aspect: It doesn’t matter how well either is made unless there’s a way to check the results. Thankfully, the Advanced Manufacturing course at , a career technical education (CTE) institute in Lawerence, Michigan, has developed successful ways to certify its students’ efforts and their parts.

Industry-Schooling Partnerships

Gabriel Kooyers is the program instructor for Van Buren Tech’s Advanced Manufacturing Program, which has existed since 2003. In its earliest days, the program didn’t have a sense of ongoing developments in the industry, Kooyers says, and simply created the usual slew of test parts “that every machinist has ever made in a machine tool program.” This changed in 2016 after Kooyers adopted program, the implementation of which gave Kooyers more experience in manufacturing education.

Kooyers’ experience would prove useful in the wake of the 2018 revision of the Carl Perkins Act, which spurred state education boards across the U.S. to update requirements for CTE programs to provide industry-recognized credentials. While most states defaulted to NIMS credentials, the state of Michigan implemented what it calls the Career Pathways Grant (CPG) process. This process was a collaborative effort that brought together CTE instructors, post-secondary instructors and employers from across the state to review and recommend machine tool competencies and standards. Kooyers contributed to this process, collaborating with fellow teachers, Michigan Department and Education officials and industry representatives to align coursework with modern industry needs. In 2022, the group sent out a survey to manufacturing leaders across the state, matching their responses to courses that adhered to federal and state guidelines. The survey results found 16 credentials or certifications that met these requirements — including the Building Blocks program.

Ten Steps to Proficiency

The Building Blocks program consists of ten parts produced in sequence, each of which is meant to be created on a three-axis mill. Kooyers admits that his first semester of using the course was not very successful, on account of allowing students to work on parts out of order and trying to introduce students to manual machines before CNC machines. After following the course in its intended order, however, he says the course has proved very successful. Students design and program the parts in Mastercam, then complete and inspect them. Each of the 10 parts in the program builds on the skills learned from the previous part, and each is made from the same bar stock. Kooyers says that these parts are more appealing to modern job shops than the “classic” CTE parts — and that the 10th part’s ISO grid requirements help students learn how to make aerospace parts, which proves a useful resume builder for many regional job shops.

Van Buren Tech’s implementation of the program mixes instructor-led teaching, internet-based tutorials and the practical hands-on projects, with an aim to get students’ hands on machines as quickly as possible. Kooyers also aims to train his students in basics of inspection. By the end of the instruction year, he expects students to be able to mic, caliper, draw, program, set up, cut and manually inspect parts, so they leave not only with a 10-part resume, but with all the set up sheets and inspection reports that go with these parts. In addition to the ability to manually inspect parts, Kooyers trains his students in the use of software solutions and electronic gaging using Verisurf’s software and Master3DGage portable CMM arm.

The Software Side

Kooyers says that Mastercam is the most widely used CAD/CAM software in shops around his region of Michigan. As such, he has paired the software with Van Buren’s program since even before Building Blocks explicitly supported Mastercam, with the idea that proficiency in Mastercam will give his students a leg up in obtaining manufacturing jobs after graduation.

More recently, Kooyers has started using Verisurf to power a Master3DGage portable 3D inspection device. Kooyers says Verisurf is particularly useful for his program as the version Van Buren uses is built directly into Mastercam and can be initiated directly from Mastercam’s tool menu. The software also uses model-based definition, improving continuity between the CAD and metrology software programs.

Additionally, the software knows where the Master3DGage’s ruby probe is in 3D space. After students align the part to the CAD model by probing key targets on the virtual model, they can inspect parts down to specified tolerances in real time by either probing surfaces manually or following automated inspection plans. Kooyers develops most of these inspection plans himself, but students who excel in the program and show interest in developing these inspection paths may also do so.

Kooyers says the device has improved repeatability from the days when his program only had access to manual inspection tools. It provides geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) reports in industry-standard formats, as well as real-time color deviation maps. Kooyers can use both to help verify students’ parts. He says this saves him 20 hours per week compared to manual inspection tools.

Turning to a New Chapter

The Master3DGage hasn’t only saved Kooyers time when inspecting students’ parts. Kooyers is also the president of the Michigan Machine Tool Instructor Association, which was revived in 2022 during the work toward revamping CTE curricula state-wide. He says he tries to be as open as possible to other teachers in this network and foster an atmosphere where CTE instructors can call one another for advice. When another instructor asked for advice with reducing inspection times, Kooyers let him know about the Master3DGage — which shortened that instructor’s inspection cycle times from 15 minutes per part to four.

One subject this association discusses is how to teach the soft skills students will need to know to thrive in the modern workplace. Kooyers handles this through an adherence to five pillars of career success and the encouragement of professional demeanors during visits to trade shows and local shops.

The five pillars are displayed on a poster on the wall of the Van Buren Tech machine shop: “Show Up Every Day,” “Work the Whole Time You Are Here,” “Have a Willingness to Learn,” “Have a Good Attitude” and “Pass a Drug Screen.” As for learning a professional demeanor, Kooyers focuses on the idea that every day is an interview. In the shop, he asks students to structure time cards to show what they did each day, what they learned and what they plan to do tomorrow. For visits to IMTS every two years, Kooyers combines this with GNAP training (greeting, name, association, purpose) to ensure students make a good impression on industry representatives. As with visits to other local businesses, Kooyers makes clear that any of the companies students visit could be their potential employers in several years’ time, so they must act professional at all times. This is further reinforced through the Van Buren Tech Advanced Manufacturing program’s close relationship to an advisory board of local manufacturers, all of whom are quick to take on successful students as interns.

Kooyers says that Van Buren Tech will soon expand its Advanced Manufacturing program with a certified turning course to meet an even wider range of industry needs. The inspection and verification technology the company has already learned to use should be just as effective for the turning course as it is for the milling course, so all that remains is to build out from this foundation.